Fruit Tea or Milk Tea: Which Commercial Kit Should a Café Start With?

The short answer: start with a TeaJoy fruit tea kit if you expect to sell around 20 fruit teas within 30 days of opening a box and want the lowest cost per drink, from £1.75. Start with the Classic Milk Tea kit if sales are hard to predict, because each drink is its own pair of sachets.

If you are adding bubble tea to a café menu for the first time, the first real decision is which kit to order. We make two kinds of commercial kit: fruit tea, made up with water, and classic milk tea, made up with milk or plant milk. Neither needs equipment or boiling: no sealing machine, shaker or pearl cooker, just the fridge, ice, water and milk a café already has. With either one, 20 seconds is the whole drink. TeaJoy is served in more than 800 UK locations.

Trade terms: £200 minimum order, free delivery and free samples, with orders arriving in 3 to 4 working days. How to order TeaJoy wholesale has the steps.

Where they differ is what you add, how many drinks come in a box, what each drink costs and how long an opened pack keeps. Below, we set the two side by side from what is printed on our boxes and our site prices at the end of September 2026.

The two kits side by side

Our fruit tea commercial kits come in three flavours: Mango & Passionfruit, Passionfruit & Strawberry, and Strawberry & Mango. The milk tea option is the Classic Milk Tea Bubble Tea Kit.

What you want to know	Fruit tea kit	Classic milk tea kit
You add	Water and ice	Milk or plant milk, and ice
Tea base in the box	1.2kg fruit tea syrup	10 x 18g classic tea powder sachets
Topping	1.1kg popping boba	10 x 50g instant tapioca sachets
Drinks per box	20	10
Larger size	80 drinks, a case of four boxes	40 drinks, a case of four boxes
Price per drink on our site	£2, or £1.75 in the 80 drink size	£2.50, or £2 in the 40 drink size
Also in the box	20 cups and lids, 20 straws, a measuring cup, a ladle, a window sticker, a strut card and a training manual	10 cups and lids, 10 straws, a window sticker, a strut card and a training manual
Once opened	Syrup and boba used within 30 days, boba kept at 0 to 7°C	Powder and tapioca used straight away
Caffeine	Traces	A small amount, from black tea
Printed on the box	Vegan and allergen free	Vegan and allergen free

What each kit asks of your café

A fruit tea drink needs only water and ice from you. The box carries a 1.2kg bottle of syrup and a 1.1kg tub of popping boba, and each drink is 300ml of water, 50ml of syrup, one spoon of boba and then ice. There is nothing else to buy in.

A milk tea drink uses your own milk: 300ml of it, then one sachet of classic tea powder stirred in, one sachet of instant tapioca and ice. The box prints "just add milk / plant milk and ice", so it works with dairy or plant milk, whichever you already keep. Made the traditional way, tapioca pearls are boiled before they are ready to eat. Our instant tapioca needs no heating or cooking.

How long does an opened kit keep?

An opened fruit tea kit's syrup and boba are used within 30 days; an opened milk tea sachet is used straight away. For a small café this can be the deciding point. Every TeaJoy product has a shelf life of 24 months from production, and an unopened box wants a cool, dry place away from the sun. Once you open one, the two kits behave differently.

In a fruit tea kit, the syrup bottle and the boba tub each hold 20 portions. Once opened, use both within 30 days, keep the syrup away from the sun and keep the boba in the fridge at 0 to 7°C. So a box suits a café that expects to sell 20 fruit teas within 30 days of opening it, which is roughly five a week. The 80 drink size is a case of four 20 drink boxes, so you open one box at a time and each starts its own 30 days.

In the milk tea kit, every drink has its own sachet of powder and its own sachet of tapioca. You open two sachets, make the drink and use them straight away. Nothing opened sits waiting, so a quiet week leaves no half-used tub behind.

What a drink costs

These are the prices on our site at the end of September 2026. Cafés that register as stockists get trade pricing.

Kit	Size	Price	Per drink
Mango & Passionfruit Bubble Tea Kit	20 drinks	£40	£2
Mango & Passionfruit Bubble Tea Kit	80 drinks	£140	£1.75
Classic Milk Tea Bubble Tea Kit	10 drinks	£25	£2.50
Classic Milk Tea Bubble Tea Kit	40 drinks	£80	£2

The fruit tea figure covers the tea, the boba, the cup, the lid and the straw. The milk tea figure covers the tea powder, the tapioca, the cup, the lid and the straw, and you add the milk. Passionfruit & Strawberry and Strawberry & Mango are listed at the same prices as Mango & Passionfruit. What is left per drink at three example menu prices is in how much you really make on a bubble tea.

What your customers bite into

The topping is the other half of the choice. The fruit tea kits use popping boba in passionfruit, strawberry or mango, depending on the flavour. The milk tea kit uses instant tapioca pearls made from tapioca starch and konjac, with a chewy, sweet caramel brown sugar taste and no extra syrup needed.

If you are unsure which texture suits your menu, our guide to popping boba versus tapioca pearls explains the difference, and bubble tea flavours explained covers how each pairing tastes.

Which one to start with

The facts above point each café one way or the other. A fruit tea kit is the better first order if:

• the lowest cost per drink matters most: £2, or £1.75 in the 80 drink size
• you would rather not use your own milk, since water and ice are all it takes
• you expect to sell around 20 fruit teas within 30 days of opening a box
• a drink with only traces of caffeine suits your customers

The Classic Milk Tea kit is the better first order if:

• your bubble tea sales are hard to predict, because each drink is its own pair of sachets
• a smaller first box appeals: 10 drinks for £25
• chewy tapioca pearls are what your customers ask for

Once you know what sells, the larger sizes bring the cost per drink down, and nothing stops you running both. For the layout of the counter, our guide to setting up a bubble tea prep station shows where the water, milk and toppings sit. Every kit is on the commercial kits page.

Questions people ask

How many drinks does a TeaJoy commercial kit make?

A fruit tea kit makes 20 drinks, or 80 in a case of four boxes. The Classic Milk Tea kit makes 10 drinks, or 40 in a case of four boxes.

Do the commercial kits need any equipment?

No. There is no boiling and no specialist kit. Every box includes cups, lids and straws, and the fruit tea box adds a measuring cup and a ladle.

How long does an opened fruit tea kit last?

Use the syrup and the boba within 30 days of opening. Keep the syrup away from the sun and the boba at 0 to 7°C.

Do the commercial kits contain caffeine?

The Classic Milk Tea kit contains a small amount of caffeine from black tea. The fruit tea kits contain traces of caffeine.

Should a café start with cans or a kit?

Cans are the least work: chill them and sell them, with the popping boba inside and a paper straw attached. A kit is made in the cup to order in 20 seconds. Our wholesale page puts cans in grab-and-go chillers and kits in cafés serving to order, and bubble tea for restaurants shows which suits which venue.

Order your first kit

You can buy a single box from the commercial kits page, or register as a stockist on our wholesale page for trade pricing. Trade customers get free samples on request, a £200 minimum order and free delivery, dispatched the next day and with you in 3 to 4 working days.